56 FOREST CREATURES. 



that the hounds are kept in constant exercise ; feed the 

 game in winter, hunt out the poachers." And from the 

 narrow space of his prison he determined how many 

 head of game should be shot in stalJdng annually, for 

 he would, on no account, allow the woods to be disturbed 

 by large hunts being held. So dear to him were his 

 various game, that his own sons might not go out to the 

 forest without his express permission. In a letter of 

 July 6, 1565, he allows his son Lewis to hunt in the 

 Rohrheimer Woods, " but hereafter,*' he adds, *^ you are 

 to refrain wholly from hunting in the said forest, nor go 

 there without our express leave and consent." 



And even in death the ruling passion has still kept 



its firm hold. The late Prince was as fond of his 



game as Philip of Hesse could have been ; and his son 

 has related to me, that in his last illness, and when his 

 final hour was fast approaching, the old man called him 

 to his bed side, and gave him strict injunctions not to 

 think of going out after the deer. 



As we read in the old legend of Tannhaiiser and the 

 Ven s Mountain, where the incautious wanderer was 

 retained by the irresistible witchery of its fair inhabitant, 

 nor could break the bonds which held every sense cap- 

 tive, so it would seem that in the magic region of the 

 forest, with its varying gloom and brightness, in th^ 

 presence and fixed gaze of the noble antlered creatures 

 lay enchantment ; holding men's minds in thrall, and 



